I got into film photography when time was bad. In 2010 when I started, film was thought to be dead soon from its decline since the early 2000. I quickly proceeded to developing my own b&w film and even as I was having easy access to chemicals (Kodak and Ilford), I was constantly worrying about the day that chemicals and even films are no longer produced. That would mean the end to my newfound passion.

Having a chemical engineering background proved to be an advantage. Before long, I found myself mixing my own chemicals for black and white film processing. I got into enlarging as well, and oh boy, that was seriously fun and yet chemical-consuming hobby. It got me deeper into mixing my own developers and fixers. I experimented with many developers, both commercially available and those with only a supposedly-correct formula floating on the internet at the time. I was on the quest to find a developer that could be many things at once:

1. Easy to use.
2. Easy (enough) to make.
3. Great keeping property. Ideally years.
4. Fine grains.
5. Good contrast, and yet not prone to blowing out highlights.

The task was, at some point, thought impossible. Engineering is all about trade-offs, and I could not achieve everything at the same time. It was, by luck, that I was given "The developing cookbook" by Steve Anchell in which he discussed at length about staining developers. I was intrigued. In the same book, I found the formular for 510-pyro. I cooked some up to try and I was blown away. It was everything I wanted.

Since then I have been making and using almost exclusively 510-pyro, and Rodinal when some degree of graininess is desired. They are both liquid developers. They both keep for a long time. They are both used as single-shot developers (so I don't have to manage uncertainty coming from re-use or replenishment).

Also since then I have been innovating and made some proprietary developers and fixers for my own use and also for commercialisation under ZoneImaging brand. But 510-pyro stuck around for its obvious advantage.

And now I've opened my own shop to offer 510-pyro and other chemicals to you so you could enjoy them as I did.
Thanks for reading and I hope you will find joy in the journey of photo-making the traditional way.